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Along with his reputation as the enfant terrible of Japanese literature, internationally-acclaimed author Ryu Murakami, one of the "two Murakamis" (along with Haruki), has acquired cult status among readers who appreciate his agile imagination, mordant prose and laser-like eye for the often-absurd details of modern life.

With Sixty-Nine, available now for the first time in an English-language trade paperback, this literary bad boy steps out of character with delightful results. Here is a lighthearted, funny tale about a group of students struggling to make sense of a rapidly-changing Japan in the late 1960s. But Murakami never loses his sharply perceptive view of the world, as he tells his coming-of-age story.